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The Visual Sound-Shapes of Spectromorphology: an illustrative guide to composition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2011

Manuella Blackburn
Manuella Blackburn*
Affiliation:
Department of music, Liverpool Hope University, Creative Campus, 17 Shaw Street, Liverpool, L6 1HP, UK
*
E-mail: manuella@manuella.co.uk
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Abstract

Since its conception, Denis Smalley's spectromorphology has equipped listeners and practitioners of electroacoustic music with appropriate and relevant vocabulary to describe the sound-shapes, sensations and evocations associated with experiences of acousmatic sound. This liberation has facilitated and permitted much-needed discussion about sound events, structures and other significant sonic detail. More than 20 years on, it is safe to assume that within the electroacoustic music community there is an agreed and collective understanding of spectromorphological vocabulary and its descriptive application. Spectromorphology's influence has been far reaching, inciting approaches to electroacoustic music analysis (Thoresen 2007), notation (Patton 2007), composition and education through its flexible functionality and accessible pool of vocabulary.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 16 , Issue 1: Denis Smalley: his influence on the theory and practice of electroacoustic music , April 2011 , pp. 5 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

References

Blackburn, M. 2009. Composing from Spectromorphological Vocabulary: Proposed Application, Pedagogy and Metadata, www.ems-network.org/ems09/proceedings.html.Google Scholar
Patton, Kevin. 2007. Morphological Notation for Interactive Electroacoustic Music. Organised Sound 12(2): 123–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sauer, Theresa. 2009. Notations 21. New York: Mark Batty Publisher.Google Scholar
Smalley, Denis. 1986. Spectromorphology and Structuring Processes. In Simon Emmerson (ed.), The Language of Electroacoustic Music. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 61–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smalley, Denis. 1997. Spectromorphology: Explaining Sound-Shapes. Organised Sound 2(2): 107–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smalley, Denis. 2007. Space-Form and the Acousmatic Image. Organised Sound 12(1): 33–58.Google Scholar
Thoresen, Lasse. 2007. Spectromorphological Analysis of Sound Objects: An Adaptation of Schaeffer's Typomorphology. Organised Sound 12(2): 129–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Discography

Fischman, R. 2007. No Me Quedo … (plantado en este verso) (2000). In … a Wonderful World, EMF CD 063.Google Scholar

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